Bruce Arians needs to see more from Jay Feely

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on September 11, 2013, 3:58 AM EDT

Getty Images

With just 26 seconds left in the first half of Sunday’s season opener against the St. Louis Rams, Carson Palmer led the Arizona offense to gain 48 yards in just four plays to give the Cardinals a chance to take a 13-10 lead into halftime.

The points were left on the field as Jay Feely’s 50-yard field goal attempt was pushed wide right. The Cardinals ended up losing the game by just a field goal as Feely’s counterpart, Greg Zuerlein, hit a 48-yard attempt with less than a minute to play to give the Rams a 27-24 victory.

Cardinals’ head coach Bruce Arians joined Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt on Sirius XM NFL Radio Tuesday. Arians said the missed field goal was a big blow and they need more consistency from Feely.

“We did an excellent job in that two-minute drill of getting down there and putting him in field goal position and it was a huge miss for us emotionally not going into halftime with the lead,” Arians said.

Arians said Feely didn’t look great in pregame warmups and didn’t hit his first two kickoffs of the game well either.

“He had a poor warmup in St. Louis and it showed up – not only on the missed field goal, which he hit solid, he just missed it – but he missed his first two kickoffs and that’s not like him,” Arians said.

The Cardinals brought in Dan Carpenter briefly toward the end of the preseason to compete for the job. Feely won the job and was named a captain by his teammates, but Arians says they ultimately need more consistency from their kicking game.

Last year, NFL kickers converted only 60.7 percent of 153 field goal attempts of 50-plus yards.

Last year, Feeley attempted only two such attempts. (He made both.)

What’s that? Nobody cares about kickers?

Then maybe NFL head coaches shouldn’t put theirs on blast on talk radio — especially not when misinformed on what is and isn’t “like” kickers.

bobzilla1001 says:Sep 11, 2013 8:51 AM

I can assure all Cardinals fans that if Bruce Arians is involved with the offense, two things are needed: 1.) A stout defense; and 2.) an accurate placekicker.
The Steelers still haven’t recovered from the mess Arians left behind after 5 seasons as the OC… Hey, you all saw Super Bowl 43: 13 points through 58 minutes against the worst defense in Super Bowl history. Your former OC, Todd Haley, inherited quite a mess here in Pittsburgh.

Arians should be blasting our LT Levi Brown. Whom he called “an elite LT” during the offseason. Now he wants to put all the blame on Feeley and say it was his fault we lost the game. Every true Cardinal knows Levi Brown is not an NFL caliber T. Try again Bruce. The Cardinals woes are much deeper than a couple missed warmup kicks. Take responsibility for not addressing the LT situation. Acknowledge your mistake and gameplay around it. The kicker didn’t give up 3 sacks and a forced fumble. Arians better realize nobody is buying the kicker excuse in AZ. Fans aren’t that stupid